Batak Karo language

Karo
Cakap Karo
Native to	Indonesia
Region	Karo Regency, North Sumatra
Ethnicity	Karo
Native speakers	500,000 (2010)^[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Northwest Sumatra–Barrier Islands Batak Northern Karo
Writing system	Batak Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	`btx`
Glottolog	`bata1293`
ELP	Batak Karo
The distribution of Batak languages in northern Sumatra. Karo is represented by the yellow shade.

Karo is a Northern Batak language, and is closely related to Pakpak and Alas.^[2] It is mutually unintelligible from the Southern Batak languages, such as Toba, Angkola and Mandailing.^[2]

Dialects[edit]

There are several dialects within Karo. A major dialect boundary exists between the dialects spoken in the east and the dialects spoken in the west.^[2] These are largely distinguished according to phonological and lexical differences. Vowels in the eastern dialect are lowered and fronted in the western dialect. Similarly, diphthongs in the eastern dialect are realised as monophthongs in the western dialect.^[2]

Eastern dialect	Western dialect	Meaning
/waluh/	/waloh/	eight
/sitik/	/sitek/	a little
/məlɯhe/	/məlihe/	hungry
/dʒauŋ/	/dʒoŋ/	corn

Phonology[edit]

Vowels[edit]

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		ɯ ⟨ë⟩, u
Mid	e ⟨é⟩	ə ⟨e⟩	o
Low		a

Consonants[edit]

	Labial	Alveo- dental	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n		ŋ ⟨ng⟩
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	c	k
voiced	b	d	ɟ ⟨j⟩	ɡ
Fricative		s			h
Lateral		l
Vibrant		r
Semivowel			j ⟨y⟩	w

Morphology[edit]

Batak Karo has productive reduplication. Full reduplication occurs mainly with open word classes and exhibits a wide range of different functions. For instance, reduplication of nouns can signify plurality (tulan 'bone' → tulan-tulan 'bones') and imitation and similitude (berku 'coconut shell' → berku-berku 'skull'). Reduplication of verbs can encode repetition (nungkun 'ask' → nungkun-nungkun 'keep asking'), duration (ngukiri 'think' → ngukur-ngukuri 'ponder') or imitation (medem ‘sleep’ → medem-medem ‘lie down, rest’).^[2]

Batak Karo has a binary contrast between actor voice and patient voice for transitive verbs and can be classified as an Indonesian-type language. Actor voice is marked with the inflectional prefix N-. The prefix N- assimilates to the place of articulation of the stem that it is attached to, and is realised as [m] before bilabial stops, [n] before dental, alveolar and palatal stops and fricatives and [ŋ] before velar stops. Patient voice is marked with the inflectional prefix i-. Like other Indonesian-type languages Batak Karo also has applicatives (the suffixes -ken as a general applicative, and -i as a locative applicative).^[2]

Syntax[edit]

Batak Karo often alternate between subject-initial and predicate-initial word orders for transitive clauses, although the preference is for Actor Voice clauses to be subject-initial. Predicate-Undergoer-Actor is a common word order when the undergoer is replaced by an interrogative pronoun. In contrast, while it is possible for patient voice clauses to place the subject (the undergoer in patient voice clauses) in the initial position, predicate-initial word orders are more frequent, with the undergoer subject placed after both the predicate and the actor.^[2]